Deeplinks Blog posts about Social Networks

Days ago the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Pillar of Defense, its latest military operation against Hamas in Gaza, firing over one hundred rockets into the Gaza Strip in response to rockets targeting Israel. The attacks prompted two retaliatory rockets launched from Gaza, targeting Tel Aviv and its suburbs. While the rockets fly and casualties pile up, a parallel conflict is taking place on the Internet and social media.

On Wednesday, the IDF posted a video of what they claimed was the assassination of a senior Hamas Operative and followed it up with a Tweet from the @IDFSpokesperson account:

We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.

UPDATE: This morning, rather than face contempt charges, Twitterhanded overthe data requested by the government, under seal, to the New York Criminal Court. Twitter was faced with a terrible choice between giving ground on its fight for user privacy, or risk a potentially expensive contempt of court citation.

With more people constantly connected to the Internet, technology companies are becoming massive repositories of sensitive and personal information. Our communications with family and friends now sit stored on servers belonging to Google or Facebook. Cell phone companies keep track of our location by recording every time we connect to a cell phone tower for up to two years. Unfortunately, the Fourth Amendment has not kept up with this technological reality. And a recent case decided by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, United States v. Golden Valley Electric Association(PDF), highlights the increasing way constitutional rights are adjudicated when it comes to data stored by other companies: through the service agreement a user enters into with a company.

Does the government need a search warrant to get information about your Twitter activity -- information like deleted tweets, other users you communicate with, and the list of IP addresses you used to connect to the service? Today we joined the ACLU, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and Public Citizen in telling a New York appeals court that the answer to that question is yes.

Responding to Outreach by EFF and the ACLU of Northern California, Facebook Corrects Error and Affirms its Goal of Providing a Politically-Neutral Platform for Election Issues, Including Marijuana Reform

Last week, news outlets reported that Facebook was rejecting ads by advocacy groups working on marijuana policy reform. The ads in question showed marijuana leaves, sometimes with photos of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and urged viewers to join campaigns to make marijuana reform an election issue. Several versions of similar Facebook ads were submitted by Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Just Say Now, but both groups were initially rejected. After EFF and the ACLU of Northern California reached out to Facebook about the issue, Facebook did the right thing and restored the ads.